Abhanga 173

This abhang describes catching the divine, and its rules are counter-intuitive. Force never works — you cannot grasp your way to it. What works is intelligence, a clever kind of catching rather than a forceful one. And crucially, the deity has to be let play freely; the moment you try to constrain, define, or demand a particular posture, catching becomes impossible. Freedom itself is the condition that makes the catch possible.

The verse

Literal translation

What it means

The closing abhang of the gopa-shikā / yamunā-tata cluster (166-173). Where the cluster has been about Krishna's play — milk-stealing, distribution, gopis, sulking, game-design — 173 names the catching of Krishna himself.

Four claims:

1. बळें डाईं न पडे हरी — Hari does not fall in the trap by force. No coercive grasping works.
2. बुद्धि करी शाहणा तो — the wise one uses buddhi. The catch is intelligent, not forceful.
3. मोकळें देवा खेळों द्यावें — सम भावें सांपडावया — let the deva play freely, to be caught with equal-feeling. The catch happens only when the deva is not constrained. Sama-bhāva (equal-feeling, even-feeling) is the catching-medium.
4. येतो जातो वेळोवेळां, न कळे कळा सांपडती — he comes-and-goes time-after-time; the play-form cannot be understood, (yet) he is caught. Understanding is not required. Sama-bhāva across the come-and-go is sufficient.

The closing imperative: धरा ठायींच्या ठायीं, मिठी जीवीं पायीं घालुनियां — catch him in the very place itself; the embrace, soul-to-soul, garland-on-feet. ठायींच्या ठायीं — place-of-the-place — is a famous Tukaram-phrase: catch him exactly where he is, not in some abstracted elsewhere. The embrace has two simultaneous registers — soul-to-soul (the inner clasp) and garland-on-feet (the outer puja-gesture). [T]

The cluster closes here: 166 (Krishna distributes), 167 (cowards-vs-bold), 168 (post-fullness wordless-signs), 169 (gopi-discovery), 170 (mock-discipline), 171 (rūdī-sulk), 172 (game-design fix), 173 (the catching). [T]

For someone today

This abhang describes catching the divine, and its rules are counter-intuitive. Force never works — you cannot grasp your way to it. What works is intelligence, a clever kind of catching rather than a forceful one. And crucially, the deity has to be let play freely; the moment you try to constrain, define, or demand a particular posture, catching becomes impossible. Freedom itself is the condition that makes the catch possible.

What actually does the catching is an even, steady feeling that holds across the coming and going — not delight when things are close and despair when they're far, but the same steadiness through both. Understanding isn't required either — the pattern of the play may never make sense to you, and you can still be caught by it.

Finally, catch the divine exactly where it actually is, not in some idealized elsewhere or in where you think it should be. And the embrace itself works on two levels at once: an inward, soul-to-soul closeness, and an outward gesture of reverence, like a garland placed at the feet.

For today: stop trying to force whatever you love — a teacher, a practice, a person — into the posture you expect. Let them move freely. Hold the same steady feeling whether they're close or far. And meet them exactly where they are, not where you wish they were.

मराठी: ही ओवी परमेश्वराला पकडण्याबद्दल आहे, आणि तिचे नियम उलट दिशेचे वाटतात. बळाने कधीच पकडता येत नाही — जबरदस्तीने हात घातल्याने काही मिळत नाही. जे काम करतं ते बुद्धी आहे — बळाचा नव्हे, चतुराईचा पकड. आणि सर्वात महत्त्वाचं म्हणजे देवाला मोकळेपणाने खेळू द्यावं लागतं; त्याला विशिष्ट रूपात बांधण्याचा, ठरवण्याचा, मागणी करण्याचा प्रयत्न केला की पकड अशक्य होते. मोकळेपणा हीच पकडण्याची अट आहे.

खरं पकडणारं तत्त्व म्हणजे येण्या-जाण्याच्या दरम्यान टिकणारी एक स्थिर, सम भावना — जवळ असताना आनंद आणि दूर असताना निराशा नव्हे, तर दोन्हींमध्ये तीच स्थिरता. समजून घेण्याचीही गरज नाही — त्याच्या लीलेचा अर्थ कधीच पूर्ण उलगडणार नाही, तरीही तुम्ही पकडले जाऊ शकता.

शेवटी, देव जिथे प्रत्यक्ष आहे तिथेच त्याला पकडा — कुठल्या आदर्श कल्पित जागी नाही, किंवा तो कुठे असायला हवा असं तुम्हाला वाटतं तिथे नाही. आणि मिठी एकाच वेळी दोन पातळ्यांवर काम करते — आतून, जीव-ते-जीव जवळीक, आणि बाहेरून, पायांवर माळ घालण्यासारखा आदराचा हावभाव.

आजसाठी: तुम्ही ज्यावर प्रेम करता — गुरू, साधना, व्यक्ती — त्याला तुमच्या अपेक्षित रूपात बळजबरीने बसवण्याचा प्रयत्न थांबवा. त्याला मोकळेपणाने वावरू द्या. तो जवळ असो वा दूर, तीच स्थिर भावना ठेवा. आणि तो जिथे प्रत्यक्ष आहे तिथेच त्याला भेटा, तुम्हाला हवं तिथे नाही.

Where this applies

• Forcing the deity into expected posture. Won't catch.
• Sama-bhāva across come-and-go. The catching-medium.
• Place-of-the-place catch. Not in should-be-elsewhere.

Related verses

• Abhanga 51 — Don't cross continents looking for pilgrimage sites. The saint's feet contain every tirtha
• Abhanga 2374 — Rather than scattering devotion among many lesser deities who demand offerings, Tukaram sa
• Abhanga 2377 — This detailed meditation on Vitthal standing on a brick at Pandharpur, out of love for his
• Abhanga 2387 — Accept whatever life brings with reverence, and place the burden on God rather than carryi